20100429 0943 Malaysia Corporate News.

Bintulu Port's expansion projects, worth some RM300m, will be completed between June and August this year, said Bintulu Port's CEO Mior Ahmad Mior Lub Ahmad. The project include expanding the container terminal port's annual handling capacity by 250,000 TEUs to 650,000 TEUs.

• The port's container freight station and stacking yards are also being widened to provide additional services. Mior Ahmad said 10 new storage tanks for palm oil now under construction would be ready in two months' time. The additional tanks will boost storage capacity by 26,000 tonnes from the current 76,000 tonnes. (Starbiz)

These initiatives are positive for Bintulu Port as they would help boost the port's cargo handling capacity and efficiency. Economic activities are picking up and we expect port cargo throughput to improve this year. We gather that close to 80% of the port's palm oil storage capacity is being taken up by long-term lease. Therefore, the completion of the 10 additional storage tanks will enable the port to support more businesses.

Hong Kong-based Asia Minerals, the investor of a proposed manganese smelting factory in the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), expects the plant, located at Samaluju Industrial Park, Bintulu, to be operational in the second half of 2012. The company's senior officials are scheduled for a third meeting with Bintulu Port to finalise some arrangements on its import and export activities, said Bintulu Port CEO Mior Ahmad Baiti Mior Lub Ahmad. Mior Ahmad said Asia Minerals had planned for a capacity of 400,000 tonnes per annum for its Bintulu factory. (Starbiz)
We expect Bintulu Port to be a key beneficiary of any increase in cargo throughput generated by the proposed smelting factory given its handling capacity and close proximity to the proposed plant. With the completion of its container terminal capacity expansion project by 3Q10, which will see its handling capacity increase by 250,000 TEUs to 650,000 TEUs p.a., the port operator should have sufficient capacity to handle the proposed plant's export and import requirements.

State-owned public transport operator Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd said 17 applicants have qualified to bid for contracts of about RM7bn to extend light rail transit (LRT) lines in the Klang Valley.

• They include firms like Sunway Construction, IJM Construction, Muhibbah Engineering, Gamuda, MRCB Engineering as well as joint ventures such as WCT-Sinohydro, Ranhill-CCCC, UEM Builders-Intria Bina and Zabima-Leighton.
• Prasarana group MD Datuk Idrose Mohamed said the candidates prequalified as the main contractor for "their technical and financial capacity and capability with the relevant infrastructure works experience". Another 15 candidates were shortlisted for the subcontracting of fabrication and delivery of segmental box girder works.
• Idrose said the main contractor and subcontractor will be notified officially in due course by Prasarana. (BT)
  

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), has received Bank Negara Malaysia's approval to open initially four branches in Malaysia. "The current licence allows them to open four, but we're further liberalising the sector," Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said. ICBC, which obtained its commercial banking licence from the central bank last November, did not say where it planned to open its branches as yet. (BT)

Malaysian and UK Islamic banks have agreed to undertake greater collaboration in crossborder Islamic liquidity management transactions. The decision was made at the end of the Malaysian-UK Islamic treasurers workshop, which was held at the Westminster Conference Centre in London on 12 Apr. The collaboration will pave the way for countries to explore business opportunities and form potential alliances in tapping the huge business potential across Asia and the Middle East. It is also looking into the possibility of developing an international benchmark rate for Islamic finance. (BT)

AmBank (M) Bhd issued RM1.325bn senior notes under its 30-year RM7bn senior notes issuance programme. The senior notes were issued on a private placement basis to identified investors, it said in a statement. With this issue, the bank has issued RM2.745bn senior notes under the programme, having completed its initial RM1.42bn issuance in March via a book-building exercise. "

• The new issue will allow greater participation by investors and increase liquidity of the senior notes. We will continue to monitor and tap the market from time to time as part of the management efforts to diversify our sources of funding and enhance the bank's liquidity risk management structure," said Cheah Tek Kuang, MD of AmBank Group. (Financial daily)

Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia saw its first-quarter pretax profit rose by 23% yoy to RM407.3m. The state-owned bank attributed the growth to increased financing income in line with the strong growth in overall financing balance despite the rise in the overnight policy rate by 0.25% in March this year.

• Bank Rakyat's gross income rose 19% to RM1.1bn in the Jan-Mar period this year compared with the previous corresponding period. Net income after profit distribution to depositors grew by 20.5% to RM837.2m, driven by continued strong growth in quality financing and deposits, and improved asset quality. Income from financing stood at RM974.1 million compared with RM786.5m a year ago.
• Bank Rakyat also recorded a fee-based income of RM28.4m, up 60.1% from a year ago, of which 75% were contributed from income on will, commission on takaful and automated teller machine service fee.
  
• Total deposits grew by 15.6% year-on-year to RM40bn at the end of Mar 10. (BT)
  

The Indonesia Commodity and Derivatives Exchange has postponed the introduction a local-currency palm oil contract until next month, according to an Executive. The rupiahdenominated contract, which was to have started trading on 30 April, will begin on 21 May, Megain Widjaja, MD of the exchange said. The trading infrastructure needed to be finalised and exchange members also required more time, Mr Widjaja added. (Bloomberg)

Natural rubber prices will remain "high" until at least June as supplies from the three biggest producing countries remain tight and demand for tyres from automakers expands, a producers' group said. "Prices will sustain high levels in 1H, with increasing car sales and positive economic indicators," Abdul Rasip Latiff, CEO of International Rubber Consortium Ltd said. (Malaysian Reserve)

Moody’s affirmed the Baa2 rating with a stable outlook for the 10-year 5.375%, US$300m senior unsecured notes, issued by Axiata SPV1 (Labuan) Ltd and unconditionally guaranteed by its parent, Axiata Group. The bond rating has been removed from its provisional status following the completion of the bond issue, said Moody’s. (Bernama)

XL Axiata plans to test LTE with Ericsson Indonesia. The companies have signed a cooperation agreement on testing LTE but are still waiting for a test licence from the government. XL and Ericsson plan to hold trials in 2H10, which will also involve government and education institutions. (Telecompaper)

The FIFA 2010 World Cup will help Maxis boost its non-voice revenue, COO , Jean-Pascal van Overbeke said. He also said Maxis aims to increase non-voice revenue to more than 50% over the next 2-3 years from 35% last year. (Bernama)

Demand for both international air travel and air freight accelerated last month with the rebound on the back of economic recovery exceeding expectations, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said. The airline industry body said that air traffic recovery would dip this month because of the disruption from the Icelandic volcanic eruption, which hit European carriers in particular.

• Passenger and freight markets are still 1% below early 2008 highs and the industry has lost two years of growth, IATA director-general Giovanni Bisignani said. "Nonetheless, the pace of improvement, based on an improving global economic situation, is much faster than anybody would have expected even six months ago," he said. (BT)

Penang's gastranomic icon - the nasi kandar - will be the marketing channel tapped by lowcost carrier AirAsia to promote its newly launched Penang-Chennai route. Chairman Datuk Aziz Bakar said nasi kandar outlets in the island state will be one marketing source for the airline, where restaurant workers are mainly Indian nationals. "The nasi kandar operators, who themselves are wealthy, are also another potential group of travellers for us," he added. (BT)

AirAsia X must not assume that the decision not to approve its application to fly the Kuala Lumpur-Sydney route was made to protect the national carrier, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat. AAX chief executive officer Azran Osman Rani had last month sent out tweets on Twitter alleging that “the (incumbent) is blocking us because they say that route must be protected.’’

• Azran was reported as saying a rational and clear policy on route allocation was needed based on the interest of the country, and not the interest of an individual airline. AAX had expected to fly to Sydney by June.
• Ong said: “As far as routes are concerned, we cannot please everybody as decisions have to be made according to criteria. My advise to AirAsia X is, do not jump the gun. Allow us to consider all the factors and let us reach a decision according to the rules and regulations”. (Star)
  

Kencana Petroleum hired AmInvestment to help it sell as much as RM250m of Islamic bonds, according to a person familiar with the matter. The bonds may be marketed to investors next month. (Malaysian Reserve)

Sunway City (SunCity) is building logistics and distribution centres at its RM1.1bn industrial park project in Australia and it is positive on sales. "Looking at currency appreciation, the economy is doing well. Industrial land price dropped more than 30% in 2009 to A$225 per sq metre.

• It is improving," said SunCity international property development division managing director Ngian Siew Siong. The company has sold one distribution centre to Best & Less, a retailer for A$44m. "We are negotiating two more deals. One local Australian company plans to buy a logistic and distribution centre and the other company wants to lease a separate building," Ngian said. (BT)

Sunway Holdings plans to buy 33.37 acres of leasehold land in Taman Equine, Bandar Putra Permai, Selangor, from Taman Equine Riding Sdn Bhd for RM37.8m. It intends to build semi-detached and bungalow villas on the land, which has an indicative GDP of RM250m and is scheduled for launch in early 2011. (BT)

Selangor Properties will stop investing in global property funds after losing money on previous bets.

• SPB had invested some RM300m in 2006 in several funds managed by foreign banks. "We thought we could make more money but the value started to drop. We have RM88m in the funds now and the valuation has improved. We will sell when we think it is right," SPB financial controller Lee Boon Kian said. The group has sold some of its investments but it made provisions of RM77m in 2009 to account for the lower value of its investments.
• Lee also said SPB may set up a real estate investment trust. It is now building its property portfolio. Its current portfolio includes Menara Milenium, Wisma Damansara, Kompleks Pejabat Damansara, Wisma HELP and SPB Towers. It also owns half of the Claremont Shopping Mall in Australia. (BT)
  

UEM Land Holdings is proposing to dispose its entire 20% equity interest in Touch `N Go (TnG) to PLUS Expressways for RM33.4m. The proposed disposal is expected to result in a net gain of RM26.4 m. UEM Land said the move was part of efforts to focus on its core business of property development. (Bernama)

Suria Capital Holdings is confident of a better performance this year in tandem with the expected better economy for the country and state. Its chairman, Tan Sri Ibrahim Menudin, said the group will continue to pursue growth strategies to increase market share for its core port services business, where it is already eyeing a 6-8% growth particularly in its transshipment services. (Bernama)

MBf Holdings’s (MBfH) controlling shareholder Tan Sri Ninian Mogan Lourdenadin has ruled out making a fresh bid to take the company private after his offer at the EGM on Tuesday was rejected by “a group of minority shareholders” who were holding out for a higher price. “I am not prepared to pay the price the big minority shareholders are asking,” Lourdenadin said. (Starbiz).

Petra Energy has appointed Kamarul Baharin Albakri as its CEO. Kamarul, 47, is now involved in streamlining the group’s management and operational practices, mainly to enhance the management processes and continuously introduce new benchmarks to promote greater accountability and transparency. He joined Petra Energy’s Board as ED in February this year. (BT)

Haisan Resources has partnered Global Logistic Properties Investment Management (China) Co for the sale and leaseback of Haisan’s land, building and part of the refrigeration equipments for 120m renminbi with a lease period of not less than 15 years. (BT)

Chemical Company of Malaysia expects 2010 to be a better year, backed by a new plant and better demand. Its group MD Datuk Dr Mohd Hashim Tajudin said the company is ready to emerge as the biggest fertiliser manufacturer in Malaysia once its new plant in Lahad Datu, Sabah, is operational in the first quarter of 2011. "The new plant will complement the other plants we have in Shah Alam and Bintulu," he added. (BT)

The Pahang state assembly unanimously passed two motions on the purchase of shares of two companies – MISC and YTL Cement. The state government will purchase 3.4m units of MISC shares at RM7 each and 906,344 units of YTL Cement shares at RM4.18 each.

• Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob said the purchases were part of the state government’s efforts to increase its revenue. “We have various means to fill the state’s coffers and one of them is to buy and trade shares at Bursa Malaysia.
• MISC is a company that has never failed to declare dividends to its shareholders, including the state government,” he said when tabling the motion yesterday. Adnan said that last year, the state government received more than RM6m in dividends from MISC and about RM3.6m from YTL Cement. (Star)